I'm not one to appreciate warranties at home. I greatly value them in the professional world however. As a kid, I ripped apart any and all mechanical or electronic toys I had. I had boxes full of motors, circuit boards and batteries. I learned at my first IT job that laptops were generally only as good as their warranty. My brother and I had warranty issues on both of our first "new" computers.
Warranties are definitely a double edged sword. Get a 5 year warranty on a laptop and throw it down the stairs 4 years into it. You could get a new laptop of same value then for "free", but guess who pays for it? All the other customers that purchase from that brand.
My first computer I purchased new had a 30 gig hard drive. That was fairly good at the time. About 6 months in, it crashed to the point of no recovery. I managed to replace it with a 3 gig and a 6 gig hard drive thanks to some generous friends. I would have been under warranty, but I opened the case to install a network card. The computer only came with a modem and we were on broad band. This was pretty disappointing. The same issue happened with my brother when a friend of our dad's installed a wireless network at the house and put wireless cards in our towers.
This was the point in time that I lost respect for the warranty. I built my own computer tower when I needed an upgrade and never had an issue with it. In 2005, I purchased a Dell XPS 400. It was one of the first dual core processors that was available, or at least I knew about. I got the extended warranty on it... and never needed it. About a year ago, I sent a request to Dell requesting a new XP re-install disc. This is 2009 and Windows 7 was on its way in.. and they couldn't provide me with an old dusty reinstall disk for free. I was pretty peeved, but I eventually got over it.
I've always had good luck with Dell and their warranties. The company I work for uses Dells and I'm very thankful for it. For a short time, I was responsible for help desk support. I was able to get instant support for software and parts overnight for all laptops UNDER WARRANTY. Their support is amazing. My support calls were sent over seas the moment the warranty expired to a person who was using a headset. That makes sense to me. It's efficient and it works. The point is, you either love Dell or greatly dislike them. I'm a fan for life... as long as they don't go exclusively to retail stores.
At one point in time, I could have been considered the best paintball marker (gun) tech in the area. To heck with being modest, I was the best. I doubt I still am, but I bet I could put together a Worr Games Autococker blind folded. There was a reason I was B&E; Paintball's head gun technician for 5 years. They'd ship guns up from Fort Smith for me to fix them. However, you could see me as an auto mechanic from the 80s. Everything was spark and fire back then. Now, 75% of the car is electronic. It's almost the same with paintball guns.
So anyway, paintball gun warranties. I sold guns based on their manufacturer's warranty and how they supported the customer. I'd sell you a Tippmann marker if you wanted a solid gun. They would send customers parts to fix their guns any day of the week. Most other marker manufacturers wouldn't even consider this. Eventually, plastic electronic markers hit the market and all the easy fixing guns disappeared and I was left with extremely fragile and almost un-fixable guns. Think of it as when the iPhone 3g was introduced. Suddenly, all the durable pocket sized phones were replaced with a plastic super phone that would easily shatter when dropped.
For the most part, standard warranties are worth it. Just read the fine print first.